Adrienne al Vaugh
Adrienne al Vaugh was one of the Harbingers. She is a major antagonist of Darkness Rising. Adrienne was killed in the Battle of the Morning on the Great Day when Trallten's Hounds defeated the Harbingers (1st Low-Spring, 2,062 H.R.). Lore Written by Jaehrin Relthin, Arch-Mage of Ghien. "WANTED, BY THE ORDER OF THE KING: A woman of remarkable bearing, with very pale skin and long black hair. Clearly of great status, her courtliness is unbreakable, and she transforms even her simple black traveler's clothing into regal garb by her poise alone. Her white hands, if not gesturing as she speaks, are folded in front of her. Her brilliant green eyes seem always to look beyond, as if she alone can see something that for others is concealed. Her voice is clear as crystal, and is so totally assured in its tone that those who hear her words are led almost unknowingly to believe them, whatever their original disposition." - Proclamation of the Templar Knights. The symbol, drawn by Xenus and given to Harkness, signifies ''immovable hold, the subsuming of the self totally to the greater whole. This could perhaps refer to one who has translated their reality completely into a now-cherished construction. The symbol, paradoxically, also seems to suggest that the self which it represents is so unified in action that it quickly becomes equally central to the stratagems of others. In terms of belief, it signifies a fanatic, with total conviction. In terms of action and motivation it suggests an almost ascetic quality. Regardless, the motion implied by the symbol is channeled with incredible strength in only one direction. With such a focus, how much is unseen?'' The House of al Vaugh is one of the most dignified lineages in Tarngeriath, that claims as its birthright most of the great religious offices in the land's thanatophilic cults. From her earliest days, Adrienne spent her life in darkened chambers amidst dreaming incense, reciting blasphemous chants beneath obscene triptychs and stained glass of purplish-black. Once she became the al Vaugh matriarch, Adrienne easily secured her role as the high priestess of death. Yet one path for her was always closed: far younger than Maynard, and never his equal, Adrienne's entire life unfolded after the title First of Twelve had already been claimed. Her place, then, was the unshakable disciple of the prophet, fleshing his will to remake the world. Make no mistake: she believes. It is said that on the first day that she was old enough to understand, she wept from joy that the First of Twelve had at last come to the people and proclaimed that she would never draw a breath that did not serve him. Adrienne did not stop at convincing herself, either. Who else but an al Vaugh could have spread his idolatry so quickly among the people of Tarngeriath? Already, the high elves say, statuary and shrines depicting Maynard can be spotted from the sea along the Tarngethin coast. Equally invaluable, no doubt, was her proselytizing, for she could speak of Maynard's rise in the language of mysticism, and with great ease convince the people that the cherished ancient prophecies were being realized at last. And Adrienne knows well what the Harbingers do. Her long studies into metaphysics and the deepest mysteries of the planes give her an insight into the meaning of Maynard's destiny that perhaps none save the First himself possess. Knowing, then, the nature of what would come with his victory, it should not be surprising that in the Keyhole you beheld her confessing to Maynard that "the void...it frightens me". ''Perhaps the truest key to fanaticism is doubt, as the fanatic ceaselessly rejects alternate paths that spring from doubt and in doing so becomes all the more certain. There is no question that her loyalty to Maynard is now absolute, and that she views him as possessing the most sacred hallmarks of destiny. Seeing what he had in Adrienne, Maynard no doubt always encouraged her pieties and platitudes, falling well into his role long-rehearsed as a divine focus and object of ritual. Certainly, he gave her perhaps the most cosmically awesome of his followers' duties: it was Adrienne that forged the Breaker in Arhinur-Fal, that obsidian circlet which seems the final key, somehow, to Maynard's plans to cut through the substructure of reality and redirect the Soul Channel. In all probability, the obsidian daggers were her work there as well; if Rathick defiled the North Pole and the ley-lines, Adrienne befouled the Forges of Eternity. Even worse, any dwarf would view the presence there of Sargranningrith and Illythux, the mounts of Adrienne and Quirian respectively, as utterly repulsive. But above all, it was Adrienne that opened the Soul Channel vortex above Sigil, allowing that energy to be redirected through the center of the multiverse from the Negative Energy Plane to the Prime. This action, of course, claimed perhaps the greatest of the Harbingers' victims, Aefal, in the Keyhole at the center of the conflagration. As a direct result, Zurgilchar gained control of Sigil and began both his reign of terror and his purge of the celestials. Her assaults upon the mortal world were only slightly less terrible. It was Adrienne alone who had the gravitas to treat with Graz'zt and summon him in a suicidal ritual that led to my removal and (exceedingly) unpleasant tenure in Azzagrat (as an aside, I nurse hope of returning for the remaining sixty-five towers!). It was also Adrienne's onslaught, in which she summoned the mariliths Unhath and Reluhantis, that drove Willbethin into hiding in Sigil and claimed the life of Hadewych Ryskamp, Master of the Circle of Rethingard. Adrienne conducted a pact with Pazuzu -no mean feat- to hold Arhinur-Fal, and logic again would indicate that she forged the initial abyssal alliances with Baphomet, Graz'zt, and Zuggtmoy. I would address one final crime to Dachs, for we have not yet had the time to undertake a systematic study of its consequences. It was under Adrienne's watchful eye that the devastation of the Clantral Mountains and the purging of all its life began: from troglodyte to stone giant, from beetle to copper dragon. Her purpose in doing so seems perhaps religious in overtone: an effort to cleanse the offending life from the area whence the Breaker came. Regardless, her campaign of extermination was only halted when you arrived, before it reached the surface but after it had purged many miles of lower tunnels and chambers of all life. Statistics '''Adrienne al Vaugh:' Female human Clr20; CR 20; Medium humanoid (human); HD 20d8+140; hp 233; Init +6; Spd 20 ft.; AC 38, touch 16, flat-footed 37; Base Atk +15; Grp +19; Atk +26 melee (1d8+9 plus 2d6 unholy plus 1d6 fire plus 1 Con/19-20, x3, Taste of Ashes) or +23 ranged (1d10+5/19-20, heavy crossbow); Full Atk +26/+21/+16 (1d8+9 plus 2d6 unholy plus 1d6 fire plus 1 Con/19-20, x3, Taste of Ashes) or +23 ranged (1d10+5/19-20, heavy crossbow); SA rebuke undead; Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; AL NE; SV Fort +25, Ref +16, Will +28; Str 19, Dex 14, Con 25, Int 10, Wis 31, Cha 12. Skills and Feats: Concentration +31, Knowledge (history) +24, Knowledge (religion) +24; Blind-Fight, Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Critical (warhammer), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Martial Weapon Proficiency (warhammer), Spell Penetration, Weapon Focus (warhammer). ''Spells Prepared ''(6/8+1/8+1/7+1/7+1/7+1/6+1/5+1/5+1/5+1; save DC 20 + spell level): 0- virtue ''(6); 1- ''remove fear ''(3), entropic shield, divine favor, endure elements (3), protection from good*''; 2- remove paralysis ''(2), ''aid ''(6), ''death knell*; 3- deeper darkness, remove blindness/deafness ''(2), ''prayer, magic vestment (3), animate dead*; 4- divine power, neutralize poison, restoration ''(2), stop heart (3), ''death ward*; 5- righteous might, spell resistance ''(4), dispel good, resonating resistance, dispel good''*; 6- heroes’ feast, heal ''(3), greater dispel magic (3), ''create undead*; 7- destruction, bestow greater curse, wretched blight, death by thorns, rapture of rupture, destruction*, ''8- symbol of death (2), ''symbol of insanity, fire storm ''(2), ''unholy aura*; ''9- ''implosion, mass heal, miracle, spread of savagery, were-doom, wail of the banshee*. ''Domains: Death (death touch 1/day), Evil (evil spells +1 caster level). 'Possessions:' ''Belt of giant strength +6, cloak of resistance +5, gloves of dexterity +6, +5 heavy crossbow, helm of teleportation, Inevitability’s Denial ''(+5 heavy fortification full plate and ''+5 tower shield of invulnerability; must be worn together, yield +6 constitution), orange ioun stone, pale green ioun stone, periapt of wisdom +6, scrolls of virtue, aid, resist energy ''(20), ''magic vestment (2), protection from energy ''(20), ''freedom of movement ''(7), ''death ward (6), resonating resistance, greater restoration ''(2), ''energy drain, ''and ''mass heal, Taste of Ashes ''(+5 unholy wounding flaming warhammer''), ring of freedom of movement, ring of protection +5, winged boots. Category:Human Category:Tarngeriath Category:Neutral Evil Category:Cleric Category:Deceased Category:Character